1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a memory card connector, and more particularly to a memory card connector having an anti-mismating portion to prevent incorrect insertion of a memory card.
2. The Related Art
Recently, electronic devices, such as digital cameras, MP3 players, cellular phones, etc., are required with larger capacity of storage to store data. A memory card, such as a Memory Stick Duo card, a SD card, a Mini SD card, a MMC card, a M2 card, etc., which has larger capacity of storage and a small size, is extensively used to expend the capacity of storage of the electronic devices. The data transmission between the electronic device and the memory card is through a memory card connector mounted on a PCB (printed circuit board) of the electronic device for connecting with the memory card. The memory card connector has an insulating housing. The insulating housing includes a receiving cavity for receiving the memory card and a plurality of grooves for respectively receiving a plurality of terminals. One end of the terminal forms a soldering portion for being soldered to the PCB, and the other end of each terminal forms a connecting portion for mating with the memory card. A metallic cover couples with the insulating housing. The memory card is inserted and held in the receiving cavity of the memory card connector for being used in storing various data and taken by the electronic device as a recording medium. If not in use, the inserted memory card can be pulled out from the receiving cavity of the memory card connector.
However, the memory card connector described above has no structure to prevent incorrect insertion therein of the memory card. Once the memory card is inserted in a wrong way, the terminals of the memory card connector are crushed and broken. Therefore, the connection between the memory card and the memory card connector is susceptible to being interrupted, resulting in unstable signal transmission between the memory card and the memory card connector.
In addition, such memory card connector is incapable of identifying whether the memory card is fully inserted therein or not. If the memory card is not fully inserted in the memory card connector, but partially inserted into the memory card connector, the connection between the memory card and the memory card connector is interrupted, resulting in unstable signal transmission between the memory card and the memory card connector. In order to solve the problem, a memory card connector is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,566. The memory card connector has two detecting terminals that are brought into contacting with each other only when the memory card is fully inserted into the memory card connector. Otherwise, the two detecting terminals do not connect with each other. So the memory card connector is able to detect full insertion of the memory card. But such detecting structure makes the memory card connector swollen. Therefore, the memory card connector is not suitable for compact electronic devices.